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Some Things I Loved About Today...

1. My breakfast smiled at me.

2. Having coffee at my favorite local coffee place…

2a. with one of my favorite people…

2b. while totally rocking my unicorn laptop and tie-dye tennis shoes.

3. Finishing the rough draft of my manuscript!!!!!

4. Returning home briefly to get the whole family packed for the next adventure… which includes being bowled over by Caleb and Miah, at the door…

This Verse:

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b, ESV).

 L.

Looks Like...

... a good week to me:

L.

Dinosaur Camp, Day 1...

Seth and Grace left for church camp today.  In an attempt to help Caleb, Ian, and Miah get excited about this week without their oldest siblings, I decided we should have our own camp - specifically, "Dinosaur Camp".  And wow...  they did get excited.

We had a few little mishaps as Seth and Grace left... like Miah's tears that almost could not be stopped because she will miss Grace so much and Ian's request to move into Seth's room while he is gone.  However, Dinosuar Camp is a pretty big hit, so far, so they are coping...

On Day 1, we ate dinosaur toast for breakfast (and limes... long story...  the limes are not going to be a new family favorite).

We did dinosaur worksheets, and learned about dinosaurs on the Internet, and drew dinosaur pictures, and read (very educational... ahem...  OK, maybe not) dinosaur books:

Undoubtedly, the biggest attraction of the day was the dinosaur scavenger hunt, during which each of the kids was allowed to find two dinosaurs, and it didn't really matter in the end, because I set that rule up so that Miah would have a fighting chance, and she found her dinosaurs first, anyway.  It's a good thing we did this in the morning, because the primordial grass has now been mowed:

 

I felt a little sorry for the dinosaurs:

It is our sincere hope that the dinosaurs will reproduce and hide eggs for us to find tomorrow:

Oh, come on... of course there are eggs...  I made them myself:

We have watched more "Dinosaur Train" than I care to admit, and we even snuggled down to watch the Bob the Builder Dinosaur movie.  Since I am amazingly creative, we ate more dinosaur shaped carbohydrates for lunch.  No one seemed to mind.

I think we might survive a week without big siblings, after all...

L.

General Assembly, Part 3

I am “backblogging” at this point.

The last day of our trip was good… maybe even very good.

Although we had planned to go to both worship services on Sunday, it became very obvious during morning worship that Miah was just done.  I am thankful that she was so good during the Friday and Saturday night services, but the truth is we broke new ground, this morning.  I am almost certain that, “Let’s Dance, Little Pookie,” had never before been read during a Church of the Nazarene communion service.  We have accomplished that now.

Still… mishaps and all… there is something uniquely special about celebrating the Eucharist with thousands of other worshippers, and I’m glad we did this, squirmy toddler and all.  I love how Miah actually sought understanding of communion, today.  After explaining it to her, she said, “It makes Jesus happy!”  This, in turn, makes me happy.  How many three year olds really get it?

Switching gears, we spent the afternoon (seriously almost 7 hours) at America’s Incredible Pizza Company, where we ate lunch… and dinner… and other various snacks!  We played games until we dropped, and Grace even managed to win an iPod touch, far more than making up for what we paid for hours of endless fun and ice cream!

This was an amazing trip for us, but there’s always something very good about stepping through the back door and resuming our regular lives, too.  And yet…

L.

(to be continued)

My Starting Line-Up...

Yeah... not for hockey... or baseball... or even quizzing (gasp)!

This is how I'm kicking off my summer reading.  Please take note there is nothing even remotely academic here.  I might pull out C.S. Lewis when I get to July, just to make sure I haven't lost too many brain cells...

Bring on the sunshine and lemonade...

L.

It's 1:00 in the Morning...

At present, I am sitting at my kitchen table, eating an entire bowl of caramel popcorn, listening to what might be the worst album ever put out by one of my favorite artists, looking at the past through rose colored glasses… 

I am, quite frankly, sick of wrestling with theology.  I am so exhausted that I cannot sleep.  The combination is terrible.

I can’t just turn the proverbial page anymore.  I think it’s time to write a new book altogether... again...

L.

Multitasking At Its Best...

This has been the strangest day.  Somewhere in the midst of applying for yet another job, preparing for HallowedWorship next week, trying to figure out the logistics of Upward basketball and cheerleading for my kids this year, checking on my book sales, baking chocolate chunk cookies, submitting school work, working out details for the quiz program in West Jamaica, and working through calendar issues, it occurred to me that I have a lot on my plate.

I'm not complaining.  The truth is, I don't do that well if I don't have a lot on my plate.  And I'm really excited about most of what I'm looking at right now.  In recent weeks I have been trying to get rid of all the stuff that doesn't really matter.  I think I'm doing relatively well with that, although I have still spent far too many hours at this desk today.  It's slow progress, but that's much better than no progress at all.

I'm going to go serve those cookies now, and I might even read a book or two to Miah and Ian before the evening hits me at full force.

Enjoy life.  Walk in the light you have.  Trust that things will turn out right.  Rinse.  Repeat.

L.         

I'm Not Really Sure How Funny This Is...

...but it made me laugh hysterically...

From John Maxwell's, "Failing Forward"

"The Top Ten Strategies for Dealing with a Dead Horse"

1. Buy a stronger whip.

2. Change riders.

3. Appoint a committee to study the horse.

4. Appoint a team to revive the horse.

5. Send out a memo declaring the horse isn't really dead.

6. Hire an expensive consultant to find "the real problem".

7. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed and efficiency.

8. Rewrite the standard definition of live horse.

9. Declare the horse to be better, faster, and cheaper when dead.

10. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

(Maxwell, 2000, 159-160).

Maxwell, John C. (2000). Failing Forward. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson